HTC will not solve One X’s multitasking “issue”, regards it as a feature and not a glitch

“What in the world did HTC do to Android ICS multitasking?” That was the opening question on an xda-developers thread from last week, which talked about what many users consider a serious software glitch on the One X, HTC’s current flagship device.

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According to the thread’s OP, but also to a lot of other One X users, memory management on HTC’s new device is too aggressive, with background apps closing too fast. While great for freeing up memory, this behavior threatens to significantly cripple the user experience of multitasking on Android.

Most of us are used to open a bunch of apps on our Android devices and keep them open, even though we aren’t using them all at the same time, to be able to quickly access some of them later. The One X reportedly doesn’t allow this, closing pretty much any app in stand-by after a short while.

That wouldn’t be very serious if it only happened when memory started to run out, or if you got any sort of warning before an app was “killed”, would it? Well, unfortunately, there isn’t any kind of notification and apps are being shut down as soon as others are opened, making browsing, IM-ing, or listening to music on the One X a real hassle.

The shocker, however, comes straight from HTC. The company has publicly addressed the “issue” and… well, it doesn’t look at it as a problem, glitch, or bug. On the contrary, the company feels that “multitasking is operating normally according to our custom memory management specifications which balance core ICS features with a consistent HTC Sense experience.”

In other words, the swift closing of dormant apps is an HTC Sense feature, added to make the One X, as well as other phones featuring the new UI, last longer on a single battery charge. That may be a noble cause and everything, but what about us, the users that want an intuitive phone that allows us to do what we want, when we want it, and how we want it?

I mean, is autonomy so important that we can’t even leave a game on stand-by for a couple of minutes and pick things up from where we left them, without saving the session and re-opening the app? And when phones sign out of Google Talk seemingly randomly, is HTC somehow doing us a favor? These are just a couple of the questions that HTC will need to answer soon, before sales begin to suffer.

Do you guys agree with us, that multitasking as HTC sees it right now is against all we love at Android? Or is their approach a good solution to increase battery life?

In the case of fb/twitter/internet it also eats your internet allowance.

Nahcos

I think this is altogether more of an Android “issue” than HTC specific – mostly determined by the way Android manages its memory resources. What people are used to call multitasking, in Android is nothing but a list of recently opened applications, with no intent whatsoever to be used as a multitasking feature per say. A real multitasking would be an application in itself supported by a list of manually chosen shortcuts (therefore fixed rather than dynamic) and conveniently presented by a dedicated task manager. The task manager itself should be seemingly integrated within the OS, allowing therefore for a dedicated hard button to be used as a launcher – and although most manufactures have been offering this in Android by holding (long press) the home button, it is rather a SIMULATION of a task manager. On the other hand, if a REAL task manager can be supported by Android, I see HTC’s solution as step number 1 in a two-step process – and therefor a good implementation. Keep in mind that all this is somewhat a contradiction in terms as a real task manager exists on the premise that an application can be closed by the user upon leaving the app – not possible in the Android world.

Andfiid

I have the s3 now after returning my one x and s3 doesn’t have this issue. I think it is a HTC problem

hohopig

no I think it is HTC issue. Such issue does not happen on other phone, or in previous generation of HTC phones.

And while I do wish there are more ways to manage multi-tasking, do know that you suggestion is just ONE possible way to do it, and i nos the best way either.

And please, not matter how you cut it, HTC’s solution must NEVER be part of it, because it simply cut it back to the “one app running at a time” regime that was iOS.

And btw, you can close an app in Android, as long as the developer code for it.

Huh?

You don’t see it as an issue on the S3, because you have an absurdly large amount of RAM in that phone. 2Gb. Your apps are lounging around there, and Android doesn’t have to worry about managing anything. Why stop at 2Gb, lets go with 4Gb. That’s still not proper Multi-Tasking.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000738940938 Moosa Mahsoom

Android does not require that much RAM unless, you want to keep huge games open at the same time but, that’s not logical.

Tom

I closed GTA 3 earlier, re opened it 40 Minutes later, I was exactly where I left off….

Anyway, If people find it an issue> Developer Options>Don’t kill activities

No multitasking, no sd card slot, no 32 g only 16, no i will not buy this phone. But i must say it was nice to play with for 30 mlnuets at att, to bad they cant fix any of these issues.

http://kuba86.pip.verisignlabs.com/ jakub

I don’t know why everyone is surprised by this! If you want an Android phone buy a PURE Android phone! everything else is a garbage! You buy a phone with bloatware and you are surprised that something is not working right… Buy Nexus phone or iPhone, if neither one works for you buy an old Nokia phone.

All i have to do is root the F*CK out of the phone and tweak to my hearts content. Problem solved

egjream

Well you can always root it and flash a custom rom XD

C425777

Horrific. I sent mine back

Androidfan78

I’ve had my one x since the 4th and have NO issue with the multitasking. in fact I’m listening to music while typing this and switching back and forth between texts. I think maybe some people just need something to complain about and won’t be happy. sorry just my opinion but I’ve had a multitude of android and other phones and this is the best android phone I’ve owned in a while. definitely in my top five with the nexus one, galaxy nexus, original iPhone and galaxy s2.

Logan

Obviously you’re not using MOG or Slacker. I just gave AT&T a demonstration of HTC shutting down my music while multitasking and they’re extending my 30 day’s to return the phone so I can get the Samsung G3.

pinj

thats different. music and text are a no brainer. phones with sub standard ram like 2 or 4 mb are able to manage music and text messaging at the same time

brett

I guess you don’t use music players? I do and I’m going to root and flash a new Rom I can’t deal with it say I’m on chrome and go to text someone then change the song on my spoyify when I try to go back to chrome it reload and I’d annoying.

Brett

It’s *

Willer

I feel okey with this

Lakshay Kukreja

htc one v got the same problem…..
previously i was using nokia…and i liked its multi tasking….but recently switched to htc one v, i thought i would give me a good system with good multi tasking…,but now……fuck htc

Sever

I will most likely exchange my phone for another android if this isn’t changed soon. running nav and Pandora in my car at the same time is desired but impossible on the one x.

mtcl

I own an HTC one x and I’m selling it off on eBay to get sgs3 due to this issue.

Lakshay Kukreja

is there any solution to fix this….

Bryan Uelk

It is absolutely crippled. I recently subscribed to Spotify premium now that I have unlimited LTE on AT&T (gotta love the “grandfathered in” rule). If I pause my Spotify, switch to any other app, then switch back, it has to re-login and I have to go back to find a play list from scratch. Pausing it! Not completely backing out. It is so bad that I will get a notification from certain apps, and since another sounds temporarily “pauses” Spotify, it will kill Spotify after notifying me of a message if the app is not running in the foreground. Unacceptable behavior, and this is just one example.

Yes the multitasking on my HTC one x is a joke. I was making a 3hr trip and using the sat nav and opened a internet page to try and find the address. By the time I found it the sat nav had turned itself off. :/
In the end I had to write the address on some paper because I couldn’t switch between the internet and sat nav long enough to input the address.

Also (my hubs was drive obviously) I went to answer a text message and (surprise surprise) the sat nav had to relaunch after.

WFT this is a quad core phone that CAN handle two open applications i’m sure. I would rather the performance of the phone slow down while multiple apps are open rather than this. My old N8 could handle 7-8 open apps at the same time, and considering the lack of ram it had. It really puts the HTC to shame.

This isn’t HTC one x bashing, I love my new phone (every phone has faults). I just think this automatic shut down of apps is a hindrance to user experience big time.

xdapao3

and to think that not so long ago HTC was the best Android phones manufacturer…
integrated battery = deal breaker
piss poor multitasking = deal breaker
no memory expansion = possible deal breaker according to how much memory there is onboard and how much it costs, a huge con anyway
sense = don’t like it at all and since ICS totally unnecessary anyway
how can anyone who actually NEEDS and (power)USES smartphones buy anything else than a Galaxy S3 or a Galaxy Note is beyond me.
personally, I have got a Note as soon as it came out (first time ever a preordered something) and wouldn’t change it for anything else on the market today even if I got paid…

frustrated

Can we fix this manually or something? Seriously, I’m not a developer or anything, and I’m about to smash my phone on the floor!!!! so annoyed at htc’s “featured” multitasking management that I feel this phone is even more inferior to my nexus one!!! argh!
my internet keeps refreshing everytime I switch between windows! What’s the point of opening multi windows when they reload everytime anyway?

azzhjnk

no point getting the galaxy s3 mine does the same and it really pissing me off

John Smiss

Been using HTC for 3 months now, NO PROBLEMS multitasking, but now I know why some apps dont show in the task manager! that’s because they are on-standby when not in focus, this is brilliant! Google should implement that for next version of the OS.

iMowLawns4Cheap

This is ridiculous. android phones are suppose to be the kings of multitasking!! My HTC Titan 2 and Samsung Focus S with WP7.5 don a better job at multitasking. I’m selling this crap and going back to Windows Phone. The only reason I got this wad for the nice HD screen and the beats audio, other than that I am not enjoying messy Android. Can’t even play with it during the day because it will drain the battery fast.

frebird2k

Not sure why some of you arte bashing HTC while praising Sammy since it behaves exactly the same way.. Pure crap!!! I may go back to BB

hohopig

and what do you base your observation on?

http://twitter.com/citybot citybot

The reason why iPhones are so popular is that all Android phone manufacturers are doing there best to cripple their own devices

sushant amburle

the multitasking issue needs to be fixed.
Really frustrating when u are downloading something n when u come back to the screen to check status it just refreshes the screen n starts the download all over.
Also when u pause a game n go to a website for a walkthrough and come back it loads the game all over, ETC. ETC. ETC.﻿

staack

I’ve had my HTC one x for a few months now and love it. it does have a issue with support multiple things running at once all my ram is eaten up. I’ll pick up my phone open task manager and 450 of my usable 700 is ate up with pointless things I can’t remove or permanently stop. I run Pandora daily while texting and surfing web and have no issues. however, if I leave things open and open a memory intensive game it freezes the game and then I’m stuck waiting for a min r so to stop apps and retry. all in all I love the phone. the styling is wonderful and when the games always run smooth once opened. great phone. like others have said all phones have issues.

Munk

I went to developer options and increased the “background process limit” to 4…. things seem better now

Praveen

I totally agree with u.using one S.

Noteconvert

Ok although I love my one x, I have gone and bought a note 2 because of the multitasking issue. It was awful (the glitch not the phone), i’d open my web browser, check a text and have to reload my web browser again. Not only was it using all my internet data reloading the same pages over and over, but it destroyed multitask.

I did try everything, rooted and rom but it didn’t fix it. It might have been because I only ever used sense feeling roms but in my mind thats what I loved about the phone. A htc isn’t a htc without sense.

How that I have a note 2 I can see just how badly the multitask actually was on the one x. I will miss the one x and the lovely UI (now I have touchwizz lol), but in the end looks and a lovely UI were just not worth it for me :(